Contradictory lab reports: Questions unanswered as SHC halts sheep cull
For now, the imported Australian sheep are safe. The high court has stayed any more culling until they are tested afresh and that too from Islamabad – although the question of why the sheep were rejected by Bahrain in the first place remains unanswered.
The order came on the petition filed by the owner of PK Livestock and Meat Tariq Mehmood Butt, who purchased the animals and had gone to the Sindh High Court seeking a restraining order against the culling of 21,000 ‘infected’ sheep ordered by the Karachi Municipal Corporation.
On Tuesday, the bench formed a committee led by the livestock secretary to have the sheep diagnosed and submit the report within a week.
“When the animals were offloaded at the Karachi port, the authorities collected samples to get them tested for scabby mouth disease without any permission,” he alleged. An Islamabad-based research and safety laboratory had already declared all sheep disease-free, but the Sindh government got them tested at a veterinary laboratory in Tandojam, which reported them to be infected.
More than 1,500 sheep have been culled and buried at the owner’s farm near Razzaqabad in Karachi.
“As healthy animals are being culled, it may lead to a ban on meat export from Pakistan, and may also harm bilateral ties with Australia,” argued the petitioner.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said the World Organisation for Animal Health regarded scabby mouth as a common and minor disease. “There is no risk to human health from eating animals with scabby mouth,” it said in a statement emailed to The Express Tribune.
The Bahraini mystery
ABC News, an Australian news network, had reported earlier that the ship carrying the sheep from the Australian company Wellard Rural Exports reached Karachi after Bahrain refused to accept the livestock because of concerns over their fitness.
However, Wellard Group Holdings Executive Director Stephen Meerwald refuted the claim on Tuesday and told The Express Tribune that the Bahrain government had issued a document to his company “confirming that the livestock can be discharged.”
In contrast, spokesperson for Wellard Rural Exports Cameron Morse said the company did not know the reason why Bahrain turned down the livestock. “We have received little official advice on why the cargo was rejected. Nor (did we have) access to any official result of various tests undertaken,” Morse told The Express Tribune. “The vessel was ordered out of the port by the (Bahraini) interior minister. So we had no other alternative than to look for another market.”
The Bahraini consulate in Karachi did not respond to the queries of The Express Tribune until the filing of this report.
A PR disaster?
“Pakistan was a fast-tracked ‘solution’ for an exporter desperate to avoid a PR disaster when this shipment of sheep was rejected by Bahrain,” said Lyn White, campaign director for Animals Australia, an NGO that played a key role in exposing slaughter practices of Australian-exported cattle in Indonesia last year. Its campaign led to the introduction of Exporters Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) – a regulatory framework that requires Australian exporters to implement approved supply chains in countries that would restrict animals to certain feedlots and abattoirs that met base-level international standards before an export permit could be approved to that country.
White told The Express Tribune that supply chain approval in Pakistan under the ESCAS was fast-tracked to provide an option for the sheep that were rejected by Bahrain. “There is so much public opposition to the live export trade in Australia that having a ship floating without a destination was a potential PR disaster for the industry,” she said.
In its official statement emailed to The Express Tribune, the spokesperson for the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry acknowledged that the shipment to Pakistan was allowed once the department approved a ‘variation’ to the ESCAS.
According to The Australian, one of the country’s national newspapers, PK Livestock and Meat bought the shipment at a reported value of Rs130 million. Despite repeated attempts, no representative from PK Livestock and Meat was available for comment on Tuesday.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM PPI)
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.
COMMENTS (9)
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Australian authorities clearly admitting that the animal have the scabby-mouth disease, but "they are safe for human consumption". Islam does not allow a sick animal to be slaughtered, and that too on occision of Eid-al-Adha'a. My second point is that why they were sold at such a low price of US$ 3.00 a head. The fact is that they were declared un-fit for human consumption and the ship carrying them ordered to leave the port to avoid spread of disease.
The very fact that the sheeps were rejected by the Bahrain authority clearly shows there was some health issue problem with the animals. We must remember Pakistan has been made a dumping ground for all sorts of undesirable food abetted by people sitting in the government concerned department whose very duty is to protect the health and well being of its citizen simply disgusts me. Why did Mr. Tariq acquire such animal when these were rejected in the first place. It is not a rocket science for one to understand this gimmick. This Austrailian firm was caught red handed by the Bahrain government for bringing in an unhealthy animal lot which may or may not have caught the disease on transit. So to cut their loss the firm sold it to a Pakistani buyer who volunteered to purchase the lot and in the process bargained with the Australian seller who had to dump his cargo somewhere. And so Mr.Tariq buys the deal at a rock bottom price!!! and guess what all at the expense of the citizen living in Pakistan. For Mr. Tariq there is no shortage of buyers; hoteliers, dealers, meat processing firms etc. We see this happening all the time unhealthy meat being sold in the market throughout Pakistan. Has any one been caught both in the health authority and the merchant? I leave it to the people to decide. Its a sad day for me.
How sick the mentalities of the owner, lawyer and so called high court which involve in it. This is the clear health issue right from the start. This shipment was never meant for Pakistan. This crooks bought this as true dumping ground and would like to play with people life and if this disease spread no body willing to spread even a single Pakistani forget about the animal or meat. On the other end so called petitioner worrying about bilateral ties with countries. We totally lost our faith now we also losing our souls.
This is pakistan where media rules and play with government.So many twist over this issue shows the inefficiency and immaturity of public departments.
Ship sheep a bio bomb from Australia? But no uranium!
Pakistan officials are in Panic. Who is running the country. Not elected govt, not armt, not courts but Media. Media said meat is unfit so officials start culling animals. Actually this is a good development that Media is playing prominent role. However the ordinary Babus of administrative system need to come out of panic state.
No doubt the cull has been halted at the insistence or command of the Australian govt, because they do not want their exports to be affected. If these animals in fact are infected, our govt will be forced to say otherwise by the Australians. Who will eat this meat, the people of Karachi? I think it should be fed to our politicians and then ship rest of the meat over to Australia. Allah has blessed Pak with enough livestock and dairy that we do not need Australian meat nor milk.